Sports Culture In Latin American History

Perhaps no other activity is more synonymous with passion, identity, bodily ideals, and the power of place than sport. As the essays in this volume show, the function of sport as a historical and cultural marker is particularly relevant in Latin America. From the late nineteenth century to the present, the contributors reveal how sport opens a wide window into local, regional, and national histories. The essays examine the role of sport as a political vehicle, in claims to citizenship, as a source of community and ethnic pride, as a symbol of masculinity or feminism, as allegorical performance, and in many other purposes. Sports Culture in Latin American History juxtaposes analyses of better-known activities such as boxing and soccer with first peoples’ athletics in Argentina, Cholita wrestling in Bolivia, the African-influenced martial art of capoeira, Japanese Brazilian gateball, the “Art Deco” body ideal for postrevolutionary Mexican women, Jewish soccer fans in Argentina and transgressive behavior at matches, and other topics. The contributors view the local origins and adaptations of these athletic activities and their significance as insightful narrators of history and culture.

This work deals with the infancy, adolescence and maturity of sport in Latin American society. It explores ways in which sport illuminates cultural migration and emigration and indigenous assimilation and adaptation.

The forthcoming Olympics in Rio in 2016, and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014, highlight the profound importance of sport in Latin America. This book is the first to offer a broad survey of the way that sport is managed, governed and organized across the Latin American region, drawing on cutting-edge contemporary scholarship in management, policy, sociology and history. The book explores key themes in Latin American sport, including the role of public institutions; the relationship between sport policy and political regimes; the structure and significance of national governing bodies and professional leagues; the impact of sporting mega-events (including the Olympics and World Cup), and the management and governance of football, the dominant sport in the region. Including contributions from Latin American scholars and practitioners, the book draws on important Spanish and Portuguese sources that are unknown to most English-speaking researchers, and therefore provides an unprecedented and authoritative insight into sport policy and management in the region. Including cases from sport in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Peru and examples from Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, this book is essential reading for all scholars, practitioners and policy-makers with an interest in Latin American sport, comparative sport policy, sport management, or Latin American history, culture and society.

This multidisciplinary book draws on sociology, cultural studies, anthropology and history, to explore the diversity, challenges and achievements of Latin American women in sport. It offers an in-depth analysis of women’s sport in ten countries across Latin America, insights into the sport activities of indigenous peoples, and the contributions of Latin American women to sport living outside of the region. The book also provides a comprehensive overview of international developments in gender and sport research, policy development and theory, and addresses sport participation at many levels including in school-based physical education, community and high performance contexts.

This book provides an historical overview of the formation of sports media in Latin America and its role in the construction of the political history of Latin American sport. The sports press was a privileged observer of the development of modern sports, but it was also a key factor in the making of professional sports in Latin America. Most of the literature on sport in Latin America treats the sports press as an historical source, rarely taking it as an object of study in itself. However, the development of sports in the region is connected to national and state-building processes and the role of media narratives is crucial to understanding how sports participate in those processes. Spanning the globalization of football in the late nineteenth century to the shift promoted by television in the 1970s, the chapters survey the historical development of sports media in Latin America. Representing ten countries, the contributors follow a framework that presents the press not as a passive narrator of the sports phenomenon, but as a social agent of the sports field. This book is of use to those interested in the history of sports and the media, and it will be a good resource for undergraduates taking courses on Sports History, Latin American History, Sports Management, and Journalism and Communication.

Latin American athletes have achieved iconic status in global popular culture, but what do we know about the communities of women in sport? Futbolera is the first monograph on women’s sports in Latin America. Because sports evoke such passion, they are fertile ground for understanding the formation of social classes, national and racial identities, sexuality, and gender roles. Futbolera tells the stories of women athletes and fans as they navigated the pressures and possibilities within organized sports. Futbolera charts the rise of physical education programs for girls, often driven by ideas of eugenics and proper motherhood, that laid the groundwork for women’s sports clubs, which began to thrive beyond the confines of school systems. Futbolera examines how women challenged both their exclusion from national pastimes and their lack of access to leisure, bodily integrity, and public space. This vibrant history also examines women’s sports through comparative case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and others. Special attention is given to women’s sports during military dictatorships of the 1970s and 80s as well as the feminist and democratic movements that followed. The book culminates by exploring recent shifts in mindset towards women’s football and dynamic social movements of players across Latin America.

Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean is the most comprehensive overview to date of the development of modern sports in Latin America. This new book illustrates how and why sport has become a central part of the political, economic, and social life of the region and the repercussions of its role. This highly readable volume is composed of articles on a wide variety of sports-basketball, baseball, volleyball, cricket, soccer, and equestrian events-in countries and regions throughout Latin America. Broad in scope, this volume explores the definition of modern sport; whether sport is enslaving, liberating, or neutral; if sport reflects or challenges dominant culture; the attributes and drawbacks of professional versus amateur sport; and the difference between sport in capitalist and socialist nations.